Patent Application
20120067414
This invention pertains to photovoltaic structures, devices, and methods of forming the same.
Photovoltaic devices, such as solar cells, can include a semiconductor, which absorbs light and converts it into electron-hole pairs. A semiconductor junction (e.g., a p-n junction), separates the photo-generated carriers (electrons and holes). A contact allows the current to flow to the external circuit. More recently, photovoltaic devices have used conductive transparent thin films to generate charge from incident light. There is a continuing need to improve performance for such thin film photovoltaic devices.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments that may be practiced. It should be understood that like reference numbers represent like elements throughout the drawings. These example embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized, and that structural, material, and electrical changes may be made, only some of which are discussed in detail below.
A configuration for a substrate structure used for thin-film photovoltaic devices consists of multiple layers deposited over a glass material. An exemplary substrate structure 100 is shown in
The substrate 10 can be, for example, glass, such as soda lime glass, low Fe glass, solar float glass or other suitable glass. The barrier material 20 can be silicon oxide, silicon aluminum oxide, tin oxide, or other suitable material or a combination thereof The TCO material 30 can be fluorine doped tin oxide, cadmium tin oxide, cadmium indium oxide, aluminum doped zinc oxide or other transparent conductive oxide or combination thereof The buffer material 40 is described in more detail below.
The substrate structure 100 can be included in a device 200, e.g., a photovoltaic device such as a solar cell, as shown in
The window material 50 may be a semiconductor material, such as CdS, ZnS, CdZnS, ZnMgO, Zn (O,S) or other suitable photovoltaic semiconductor material. The semiconductor material 60 can be CdTe, CIGS, amorphous silicon, or any other suitable photovoltaic semiconductor material. The second contact 70 can be a metal or other highly conductive material, such as molybdenum, aluminum or copper.
Although the materials 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 are shown stacked with the substrate 10 on the bottom, the materials 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 can be reversed such that the second contact 70 is on the bottom or arranged in a horizontal orientation. Optionally, additional materials, layers and/or films may be included in the substrate structure 100 or device 200, such as AR coatings, color suppression layers, among others.
The buffer material 40, which directly contacts the semiconductor materials 60, is important for the performance and stability of the device 200. For example, in a device 200 that uses CdTe (or similar material) as the semiconductor material 60, the buffer material 40 is a relatively resistive material as compared to the TCO material 30, and provides an interface for the window material 50 and TCO material 30. Among the solar cell performance parameters, open circuit voltage (Voc) and short-circuit conductance (Gsc) are closely related to the buffer material 40 design.
According to one embodiment, the buffer material 40 comprises a single layer of GZnO, where G is Cd or Sn. In another embodiment, the buffer material 40 comprises a layer of GZnO and a layer of any other transparent conductive material. In another embodiment the buffer material 40 includes a layer of GZnO and a layer of SnOx. The buffer material 40 may have a thickness from about 0.1 nm to about 1000 nm, or from about 0.1 nm to about 300 nm.
In one embodiment, a device 200 includes a glass 10, a barrier material 20 of SiAlOx (about 2000 Å), a TCO material 30 of CdSt (about 2000 Å), a buffer material 40 of GZnO (about 750 Å), a window material 50 of CdS (about 750 Å), a semiconductor material 60 of CdTe (about 3 μm), and a second contact of a highly conductive material (e.g., molybdenum, aluminum, or copper).
In another embodiment, a device 200 includes a glass 10, barrier material 20 comprising a layer of SnOx and a layer of SiAlOx (totaling about 500 Å), a TCO material 30 of SnO2:F (about 4000 Å), a buffer material 40 of GZnO (about 750 Å), a window material 50 of CdS (about 750 Å), an semiconductor material 60 of CdTe (about 3 μm), and a second contact of a highly conductive material (e.g., molybdenum, aluminum, copper).
In each embodiment described above, the ratio of G to Zn can be from about 1:100 to about 100:1.
GZnO material or the entire buffer material 40 may be doped. Dopants can be used to achieve a desired conductivity of the buffer material 40 as compared to the TCO material 30. In one embodiment, the buffer material 40 is less conductive than the TCO material 30. Dopants can be n-type or p-type elements. For example, group I elements (e.g., Li, Na, and K) and group V elements (e.g., N, P, As, Sb, and Bi) are p type candidates, and group III elements (e.g., B, Al, Ga and In) and group VII elements (e.g., F, Cl, Br, I, and At) are n-type candidates. In one embodiment, the effective concentration of dopant in the buffer material 40 (or in the GZnO material) is between about 1×1014 atoms/cm3 to about 1×1020 atoms/cm3.
The buffer material 40 provides an interface between the TCO material 30 (highly conductive) and the window material 50 (relatively resistive). To optimize the interface, there should be a good energy band alignment between TCO material 30 and the window material 50. This can be achieved by adjusting the buffer material 40 doping. For example, if a CdS window material 50 is thin it can become non-conformal and some buffer material 40 will directly contact the semiconductor material 60 (e.g., CdTe), which will change the band alignment. Therefore, depending on the thickness or doping level of the CdS window material 50, the buffer material 40 doping is selected to provide a good energy band alignment between TCO material 30 and the window material 50.
Alternatively, a desired conductivity for the buffer material 40 can be achieved by controlling oxygen deficiencies of sub-oxides. For example, the amount of oxygen deficiency can be altered by changing oxygen/argon ratios during a reactive sputtering process as described in more detail below.
As shown in
Arrows 33 depict the optional step of doping the buffer material 40, which can be accomplished in any suitable manner.
In one embodiment, the dopant is introduced into the sputtering target(s) at desired concentrations. A sputtering target can be prepared by casting, sintering or various thermal spray methods. In one embodiment, the buffer material 40 is formed from a pre-alloy target comprising the dopant by a reactive sputtering process. In one embodiment, the dopant concentration of the sputter target is about 1×1017 atoms/cm3 to about 1×1018 atoms/cm3. In one embodiment, the buffer material 40 is formed by a sputtering process using a target of Cd—Zn or Sn—Zn and a target comprising the dopant, and such targets may be placed adjacent one another during the sputtering process.
In addition, conductivity of the buffer material 40 can be changed by controlling thermal processing of the buffer material 40. The buffer material 40 is an amorphous material upon deposition. By thermal processing, e.g., thermal annealing, the buffer material 40 can be converted (in whole or in part) to a crystalline state, which is more conductive relative to the amorphous state. In addition, the active dopant level (and thereby the conductivity) can be varied by thermal processing, e.g., thermal annealing. In this case, both thermal load (i.e., the time of exposure to a temperature and the temperature) and ambient conditions can be manipulated to affect doping levels in the buffer material 40. For example, a slightly reducing or oxygen-depleting environment during an annealing process can lead to higher doping levels and thus enhanced conductivity accordingly. Furthermore, a thermal treating process can be a separate annealing process after deposition of the buffer material 40 (and before the formation of any other materials on the buffer material 40) or the processing used in the depositions of the window material 50 and/or the semiconductor material 60. The thermal processing can be done at temperatures from about 300° C. to about 800° C.
Alternatively, a desired conductivity for the buffer material 40 can be achieved by controlling oxygen deficiencies of sub-oxides. For example, the amount of oxygen deficiencies can be altered during the formation of the buffer material 40 by introducing gases and changing the ratio of oxygen to other gasses, e.g., oxygen/argon ratio, during a reactive sputtering process. Generally, for a metal oxide, if it is oxygen deficient, extra electrons of the metal can participate in the conductance, increasing the conductivity of the material. Thus, conductivity of the buffer material 40 can be increased by controlling the deposition chamber gas to be oxygen deficient (i.e., by forming the buffer material 40 in an oxygen deficient environment). For example, supplying forming gas will reduce the available oxygen gas.
While disclosed embodiments have been described in detail, it should be readily understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Rather the disclosed embodiments can be modified to incorporate any number of variations, alterations, substitutions or equivalent arrangements not heretofore described.
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to Provisional U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 61/385,398, filed on Sep. 22, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61385398 | Sep 2010 | US |
